More beautiful architecture at The CIBC Theater… formerly The Shubert Theater… in downtown Chicago. Not quite as over-the-top as some of the other theaters in town, but still beautiful with its ceiling treatments, corbels & crystal chandeliers.

Divorced. Beheaded, Died.
Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.

Another night of musical theater last night… or in this case, more like a “pop concert” loosely wrapped around a bit of history. The six wives of Henry VIII sing about their tragic lives… with plenty of beautiful voices, but not much of a story! It’s like a mini-history lesson with The Go-Go’s!!!

With a little extra time last night, we got to see the beautiful “Four Seasons” mosaic by Marc Chagall down in the Chase Tower Plaza in Chicago. Beautiful mosaic murals portraying life in Chicago through thousands of little tiles.

According to the Chicago Cultural Affairs website… “Composed of thousands of inlaid chips in over 250 colors, Marc Chagall’s mosaic artwork The Four Seasons portrays six scenes of Chicago. It features a vocabulary of images informed by the artist’s Russian-Jewish heritage and found in his Surrealist paintings such as birds, fish, flowers, suns and pairs of lovers. Chagall maintained, “the seasons represent human life, both physical and spiritual, at its different ages.” The design for this mosaic was created in Chagall’s studio in France, transferred onto full-scale panels and installed in Chicago with the help of a skilled mosaicist.

Chagall continued to modify his design after its arrival in Chicago, bringing up-to-date the areas containing the city’s skyline (last seen by the artist 30 years before installation) and adding pieces of native Chicago brick.”

And sometimes the bird seed just becomes a BUFFET?!!!

Sometimes even the birds need some fun pottery to eat out of…
stamped, soda-fired & seeded…

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY with a large stamped platter… fired with a nice cone six green glaze that pools, puddles & works its magic on the repetitive stamped textures!

As seen on a shelf at Lillstreet… looks like Chuck is conducting some sort of science experiment in his clay bags?! I know it’s just an organic slimy mold growing in the bag… which will be wedged in making the clay more “plastic”… and will be burnt out during the bisque firing. No worries… perhaps a little off-putting… but also a fun little pottery petri dish!

I knew it would be in there somewhere… Lots of clouds blowing through this morning shrouding the horizon. But the sun finally worked its way through the thickness… moments before a big wavy of chilly fog moved in!

Got ’em done… all handles attached for another batch of mugs! You know they’re my favorite thing to make… kind of my default. If I don’t know what to make… I just make MORE MUGS!!!

Got all of my handles pulled, looped & setting-up… just waiting for them to stiffen-up a bit before I start attaching them onto my newest batch of mugs! Score, slip, attach, repeat… repeat…

Gotta get ’em going… as a new session of pottery classes starts tonight at Lillstreet… and I’m back teaching my Intermediates tonight!